It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..

IT was the best year of Rhys Shelly's life. And the worst. To understand why, we need to go back to the start.

- BY GARRY DOYLE

In the heart of Tipperary, between the fields of Littleton and the shadow of Semple Stadium, hurling isn’t so much a pastime as a pulse.

For Shelly, it's the rhythm of his childhood — the echo of a wet sliotar off the ash, the sight of his mother standing on the sideline, and the feeling that, whatever happens, she always had his back.

This was Shelly's breakthrough year, not just Tipps. He got into the team in 2023, yes. But this year he stayed in it. That's a big difference.

Now, with an All-Ireland medal in his pocket and the No.1 jersey finally his own, Shelly can look back and see the small moments that shaped the big ones.

He grew up in a house where sport was oxygen — a family of competitors and believers. But if you're searching for the reason he became Tipp's latest star, look to one woman and one field in Littleton.

"Yeah, very thankful to grow up in such a big family," Shelly begins. "Especially my mother. We moved out to Littleton when I was about five, and the land beside the hurling field would be my grandmother's.

So, you'd be down there nearly every day when you weren't in school.

"I just remember my mother always having us out pucking the ball around. There used to be this little hurling challenge show on RTÉ — I can't even remember the name of it — and she'd have us doing the drills. Hurling tennis, touch games, everything."